For 2012, the two largest homebrewing competitions in Washington are joining forces for one major competition, bringing the best of both events into one. You'll get great feedback and compete for great prizes, including the ability to have your beer selected by a local brewery to be scaled up and brewed and qualify for the 2012 Great American Beer Festival Pro-Am Competition.

What is the Joint Cascade Brewers Cup and Puget Sound Pro-Am Competition?

It is the intention of the Joint Cascade Brewers Cup and Puget Sound Pro-Am to provide homebrewers with an opportunity to participate in a first-rate competition and provide local breweries a chance to find homebrew recipes to scale up and brew commercially. All entrants are assured of receiving timely, constructive feedback from qualified beer judges. We intend to provide a forum for experienced judges to exercise their skills, and provide experience training for the next generation of beer judges. We welcome suggestions on how we can improve our competition.

This competition is unique in the fact that SEVERAL breweries will be participating and brewing multiple winning beers! Not only will your beer get judged in an AHA/BJCP (2008 guidelines) sanctioned event, but local professional brewers may taste and select your beer to be brewed on their systems and sold to the world!

If the breweries select winning beers of American Homebrewers Association members (or brewers willing to become AHA members by March 10th), they will be submitted to the Great American Beer Festival's Pro-Am Competitionfor the chance to bring home gold medals for the brewery and homebrewer! Please keep in mind that in order to have your beer sent to the GABF, you must be an AHA member at the time of the competition, so join now!

You can save $5 on the membership cost right now by clicking here and filling out the form.

How do I enter?

Each participating brewery has established defined target styles and limitations for the entries. Look over the Participating Brewery information tables below to help choose which beers you would like to try (see the FAQ page for tips on winning).

3. Register entries online, Print out bottle IDs and entry form from online registration, and rubber band these to your bottles with your payment (you need both the bottle IDs and a filled out recipe sheet from the online registration)

Entries (three 10-12oz bottles, two for meads or ciders) are due March 3rd and must be submitted to Larry's Brewing Supply in Kent, WA or dropped off at one of the locations listed below. The entry fee is $6 per entry registered online ($1 off each entry for competition helpers - CLICK HERE TO VOLUNTEER); up to 12 entries per entrant. Make checks out to BEWBC. If you experience problems with the online entry system, you may contact the competition organizer for an exception.

Register your entries online in advance and get your Bottle ID Labels and Entry Forms made for you. It is free, easy and allows you to upload BeerXML recipes into the database! Just print out the Bottle ID Labels, Entry Sheets, and send your payment with your beers. Filling out a complete recipe is required for brewery selection! If you have problems with the registration tool, please contact the competition organizer for help.

Want to volunteer? People willing to volunteer as stewards or BJCP judges, please register here(we need people to pick up entries, sort, and on the day of the competition. Volunteers get $1 off each entry.

Judging will happen with weekend of March 10th. Due to the need to keep the identities of the homebrewers anonymous to the selecting brewers, FULL RESULTS WILL NOT BE POSTED UNTIL ALL BEERS HAVE BEEN SELECTED. Coded results may be posted soon after the competition. Similarly, due to the need to have judging notes available to the brewers throughout the selection process, it will take a little while to get you your score sheets. PLEASE UNDERSTAND THIS IS A NECESSARY AND WORTHWHILE SACRIFICE TO BRING YOU THE OPPORTUNITIES OF THIS COMPETITION!

High placing brewers may be notified within a week after the initial judging. We may encourage advancing brewers to send in an extra bottle or two for the brewery selection if they are close. Breweries will select their beers 1 - 2 weeks later so please be patient.

After winners are selected, the breweries will work with the homebrewer to scale up and brew their recipe. Details will be worked out with the individual breweries to accommodate brewery, homebrewer, and "freshness" needs.

See the complete Rules for more details on entering the competition. For competition questions, please contact the organizer. For more information on the Pro-Am component of the competition, contact Mark Emiley.

This competition is only open to homebrewers (no commercial entries). Competition staff, judges, and stewards are eligible to enter. Judges and stewards may not participate in the judging of their own entries and safeguards will be taken to prevent judges from knowing who brewed the entries they are judging. All BJCP styles will be evaluated (only beer entries are eligible for Pro-Am selection). An updated list of the breweries and desired styles will be maintained at: http://www.wahomebrewers.org/jbcbpspa).

The entry fee per entry is $6.00. All entries MUST be registered online (link available on the competition website) – any exceptions must be coordinated with the competition organizer. Competition helpers (judges, stewards, staff, etc.) get $1 off each entry. Only 12 entries are allowed per entrant. Make out checks to BEWBC. The competition organizers reserves the right to close the online registration early if more entries are registered than the judges can adequately judge.

Brewers must provide 3 brown, 10-12 oz bottles for judging. Each bottle will be labeled with a bottle entry form (from the registration tool) attached with a rubber band (no tape or other labels). Markings on caps will be completely blacked out with a marker.

Recipes for all entries will be submitted via the registration tool on the website or on a Puget Sound Pro-Am version of the American Homebrewer’s Association recipe entry form found on the website listed above. The tool allows importing from brewing software that exports in BeerXML. Recipes that entrants desire to have eligible for brewery selection should include: the entire recipe, mashing schedule, water adjustments, fermentation profiles, and style category. Entrants should write their AHA member number at the top of the printed out recipe page (if they are an AHA member).

All recipes and entries submitted become the property the Joint Cascade Brewers Cup & Puget Sound Pro-Am. Recipes selected by the breweries become the property of the participating brewery. The breweries retain the flexibility to change the winning recipe as necessary to accommodate their brewing equipment. The breweries retain the flexibility to choose the winning beer based on private concerns (marketability, balance to existing beer line, ability to participate in GABF Pro-Am Competition, etc.)

Entries must be collected by a participating club, mailed, or dropped off at Larry's Brewing Supply by March 3rd (desired drop-off period is Feb 11th – March 3rd) or dropped off at the locations specified above.

The AHA/BJCP sanctioned judging will be held on March 10th. Breweries will select the winners within few weeks of the initial judging. The winners will be announced shortly thereafter with results posted on the competition website. The recipe brewing dates will be scheduled in coordination with the breweries.

Winning beers from American Homebrewers Association members may be submitted to the Pro-Am competition at the Great American Beer Festival. Each AHA member may only have one beer continue to the festival. To join the AHA, visit www.homebrewersassociation.org

Homebrewers must be AHA members at the date of competition (March 10th, 2012) and at the time of the GABF Judging (Oct 11th- Oct 13th, 2012: membership will be verified by AHA – this rule may change with would require only AHA membership as of mid-June: details will be posted on the Great American Beer Festival website http://www.greatamericanbeerfestival.com/the-competition/pro-am-competition/ )

Homebrewers may not be members of the brewery's staff. The homebrewer brewing their recipe with the professional brewery CANNOT be or have ever been an employee or contractor of a brewery or brewpub by the time of the GABF Registration Deadline.